Albany district sued over aid

Charter schools in city say they're owed $4.8M in tuition payments

By SCOTT WALDMAN Staff writer

Updated 10:07 pm, Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Albany's charter schools are suing the city school district for withholding aid payments.

The schools claim they are owed $4.8 million in tuition payments from the district. The schools are seeking an order in state Supreme Court that would force the district to pay the full amount required by law.

Albany is the only district in the state that has ignored the lifting of a charter funding freeze. By law, the district is now required to pay $14,702 per student enrolled in one of the city's 11 charter schools.

Instead, school officials are paying the former rate of $11,712. That means the publicly funded, privately run charter schools are owed $2,360 more per student. The state Education Department is supposed to withhold the difference from Albany's aid and funnel it to charter schools. However, charter officials claim they have not received the money.

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A statement released by the schools said the lawsuit was a necessary last step:

"Only students and teachers are being hurt by the Albany school district's decision not to comply with state law. Since the schools' requests for payments have been fruitless, they are obliged to take this step."

Public education advocates had widely expected the state Legislature last year to freeze the charter funding levels at their 2008-09 levels, but the provision did not pass.

The Albany district paid about $60,000 for a lobbyist and has legislation pending in the capital that would provide a special exemption to the lifting of the charter freeze. The bill, recently sponsored by Assemblyman Jack McEneny and Sen. Neil Breslin, calls for Albany's charter schools to be reimbursed at the same level as during the 2008-09 school year.

Spokesman Ron Lesko said the district has no comment on the lawsuit, and has not had a chance to review it.

Five of the charter schools have received $650,000 in extra aid payments from the state, Lesko said. Albany has paid $26 million to charter schools and received $5 million in state transition aid to offset their cost.

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"We can understand why the charter schools might be having cash flow problems after spending more than $10,000 to unsuccessfully try to defeat our budget," Lesko said, referring to an anonymous mailer sent by a charter-affiliated group that asked residents to vote down the district's $206.5 million spending plan.